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Pardon Gotora,Correspondent
The past decade witnessed an increase in the number of housing cooperatives in the country.
Before then, cooperatives were predominantly found in farming, fishery, art and craft, among other related endeavours.
Very few focused on housing development.
Where they were involved, the likes of Kugarika Kushinga Housing Cooperative in Mabvuku, got serviced land and all they needed to do was to build superstructures for their membership.
They seemed to be performing well.
At the spin of the year 2000, housing cooperatives emerged with great oomph.
Coincidentally, it was the same time that the country embarked on the Fast Track Land Reform Programme. While others seized farm land, some targeted both farmland and housing land, particularly in peri-urban areas.
They had a vision and that vision, presumably, was to “help deliver affordable housing to the people”.
They formed housing cooperatives, which they duly registered under the Cooperatives Societies Act. So at law, they were a legal entity.
Mansions were built and people relocated to live in their new possessions.
However, the land that they occupied was predominantly designated State or council land on acquisition.
This implied that they were supposed to be formally allocated the same by either the Government or council, which did not happen in the majority of cases.
Where offer letters were obtained, houses were built without approved Layout Plans and Development Permits as required by the Regional Town and Country Planning Act.
Consequently, all such housing developments were illegal settlements.
In 2005, the Government mooted the notion to rid of all illegal settlements across the country.
For all those who were old enough to recall national events, Operation Murambatsvina or Restore Order quickly comes to mind.
It also impacted on out buildings in existing settlements and illegal vending sites.
Many housing cooperatives felt the pinch, serve for one or two such as Nehanda Housing Cooperative in Dzivaresekwa Extension and Sally Mugabe at Arcon Farm in Goromonzi.
Pressure came from all angles, the affected population, the international community through agencies such as UN-Habitat, Amnesty International, as well as local human rights groups and opposition politics questioning the rationale behind mass evictions and demolitions.
The situation cried out for solutions.
Immediately after Murambatsvina, Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle ensued. It had Phase I and Phase II.
The former saw Government building core-houses, while for the latter, Government allocated virgin land to organised groups such as housing cooperatives so that they could pool their resources and service the land and build own houses on the land.
The same housing cooperatives that were affected by Murambatsvina, were the first to be considered on the land they had occupied hitherto.
Government had to tweak the housing policy to accommodate the obtaining expectations and introduced incremental and parallel development.
Garikai had already set a precedent that houses could be built where there are no services and servicing would follow.
Marondera’s Elmswood project was a successful case study in the regard.
So, it was a matter of buttressing the practice by policy pronouncement. It was vividly stated in the 2012 National Housing Policy.
However, this incremental policy clause was manipulated by some unscrupulous elements and what followed next was near disaster.
However, the major challenge that confronted most housing cooperatives was that of lack bulk infrastructure for water and sewer systems.
The existing infrastructure is already overwhelmed to say the least.
The peri-urban land lies far from existing infrastructure and it is expensive to construct the same.
The Government and local authorities were already hamstrung by that albatross.
Now, to expect housing cooperatives to foot the bill would be like pushing Mt Kilimanjaro to Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe.
That explains why most areas remain unserviced, such as Harare South, Caledonia, Sally Mugabe, and Solomio Farm in Harare, Gimboki South in Mutare, Cowdray Park in Bulawayo, Spitzkop in Gwanda and Victoria Range in Masvingo.
It is not confidential that the City of Harare, for instance, is failing to supply water to the existing suburbs and the surrounding local authorities like Chitungwiza and Ruwa as it used to.
Places like Mabvuku and Greystone Park hardly received any tap water, if at all.
Now, add the massive housing developments perpetuated by housing cooperatives in all the peri-urban areas. It is too huge a mountain to climb in that instance.
The off site infrastructure for water and sewer has outlived their best before date.
They were designed for smaller populations than what is obtaining at the moment.
It is not the role of housing cooperatives to fund and construct off site infrastructure for water and sewer extraction and treatment.
The situation is not helped either by rural local authorities bordering major towns and cities.
They have seen the option in reaping from the value of land in the vicinity of a major city and planned their settlements right on the boundary of the major cities.
Ironically, they expect their residents to get services from the “big brothers” in the cities and towns, while housing cooperatives within the city also expect the same.
To be continued
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